Marlins to get first taste of new replay system -- albeit a little limited -- today vs. Tigers

LAKELAND -- The Marlins will play in their first instant replay game of the spring this afternoon against the Tigers. Just don't consider it a complete dress rehearsal.

Unlike during the regular season when umpires in New York's Replay Command Center will watch video of the play in question using the "indisputable video evidence" standard when deciding whether to overturn a call, somebody inside of a TV van parked outside Joker Marchant Stadium will be doing the reviewing this afternoon.

The camera angles used also won't be as good as during the regular season, Marlins manager Mike Redmond cautioned.

"We'll see how it goes," Redmond said. "It would be nice to have a play -- at least one play that we could review, get used to how we're going to do it during the season.

"I know this system is totally different than what we're going to have during the season. I can't really say it's a tune-up. It's basically exactly what we've been doing for the last two weeks just with the mechanics of being able to review a play. We still have limited camera angles. So we're kind of at the mercy of the trucks and whatever angle they get of the play. I think there's [been] a lot of inconclusive pictures so far [in other spring training games]. At least that's the way I've seen it."

Baseball's new adopted replay rules allow managers to make one challenge per game (two if the first challenge results in an overturned call) and allows umpires to initiate a review from the seventh inning on.

The Marlins will have video coordinator Cullen McCrae and newly hired administrative coach Pat Shine watching the game on a laptop this afternoon. When they feel the need to appeal a play they will use a walkie-talkie system to contact bench coach Rob Leary and tell him the team should challenge the play.

Here what is reviewable under the new rules: Ground-rule doubles; fan interference calls; boundary calls; force plays at all bases (except whether a middle infielder touched second base during the attempt to "turn" a double play); tag plays on the base paths (whether a runner was tagged or whether the runner touched a base); fair/foul calls on balls hit into the outfield; catch/trap calls on balls hit into the outfield; time plays (whether or not a run scored prior to the third out); whether a runner passed a preceding runner; scorekeeping issues (including the count, number of outs, score or substitutions).

Redmond said the Marlins plan on challenging anything they think they should and won't be saving their challenges for later innings.

"We've talked about it. My philosophy is going to be to use it," Redmond said. "If we can get a guy on base or get an out [we'll use it]. We talk about 27 outs. If we can get one of those outs using replay -- it doesn't matter if it's early in the game or mid game -- we're going to do it.

"I know they talked about saving challenges for the big plays. But you never know when the big plays are going to come. It could be in the first inning. It could be the first hitter of the game. You never know. But that's kind of going to be our philosophy. I'm sure they'll be some trial and error with this system. But it will be like that for everybody. I think we all hope it doesn't slow down the game and there's not games where there are four or five or six tough calls. Hopefully, like they say, we're only using this thing every four or five games."

There are four other games in which the team will have the expanded replay system available for us: Sunday at the Twins (Fort Myers), next Wednesday versus the Cardinals (Jupiter), March 23 at Detroit (Lakeland), and March 29 at Yankees (Tampa).

> Redmond said he expects infielder Jeff Baker, who strained his quad getting out of the batter's box on Monday, to play Friday night against the Mets in Jupiter. Second baseman Rafael Furcal (hamstring) will likely play Saturday in Jupiter if he doesn't have any setbacks, Redmond said. Both players were expected to go through full baseball activities for the first time Thursday. They hit in the batting cages and played catch in Jupiter on Wednesday.

> Redmond said Reed Johnson, Brian Bogusevic, Donavan Solano and Greg Dobbs -- all bench players for the Marlins -- were participating in Triple A game Thursday in Jupiter to get extra at-bats.

"It's a good way to get to get guys in there, get six, seven, eight, nine at-bats quickly without having to play defense," Redmodn said. "They can just go work on the offensive part of it."